Ken Nosaka

Professor Kazunori (Ken) Nosaka obtained his PhD in 1996 from Yokohama City University Medical School in Japan for the topic of eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage and adaptation. He spent two years (1989-1991) in the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) as a visiting research fellow, worked under Dr. Priscilla M. Clarkson who was a renowned researcher of exercise-induced muscle damage. In 2000, he had a sabbatical at Edith Cowan University (ECU) and produced 7 peer reviewed journal articles, which gave him an opportunity to apply for a position at ECU. He commenced at ECU in April 2004 as Associate Professor, initially on a fixed 3-year contract, but this became an ongoing position in 2006 as a result of his significant research outputs. He was promoted to Professor in December 2009.
His main roles at the university were to coordinate postgraduate research programs (2007-2014), direct the Center for Exercise and Sports Science Research (2007-2012), and direct exercise and sports science courses (2015-2021). He is currently a Professor of Exercise and Sports Science in the School of Medical and Health Sciences and is a PhD course coordinator of the school. He has supervised 37 PhD and 25 Masters by Research students to completion, and is currently supervising 7 PhD and 1 Masters students.
He has published more than 370 peer-reviewed journal articles, and about 80% of them are related to “eccentric exercise”. His research skills include muscle function and contractile property assessments, electrical stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, B-mode ultrasonography, electromyography, near-infrared spectroscopy, blood analyses, histology, and other physiological measures often used in exercise and sports science research (e.g. pulmonary, cardiovascular, neuromuscular function measures). His current h-index is 71 in Scopus, and 92 in Google Scholar with more than 28,600 citations.
Prof Nosaka has been investigating the effects of eccentric exercise training on health and fitness of older adults and clinical populations. His team found that descending stair-walking in which the knee extensor muscles perform mainly eccentric (lengthening) muscle contractions (a typical eccentric exercise) was more effective for increasing muscle function of the leg muscles including walking ability, decreasing resting blood pressure, and improving insulin sensitivity and blood lipid profile markers of older obese individuals much greater than ascending stair-walking in which the knee extensor muscles perform mainly concentric (shortening) muscle contractions. In a project, the effects of eccentric cycling in comparison to conventional cycling training on chronic heart failure patients have been investigated. In another project, the effects of home-based eccentric exercise training on patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have been investigated.
With the results from these studies, it is expected that eccentric exercise interventions should be implemented more for improving health and fitness, anti-ageing strategy, and a standard clinical prescription in exercise medicine.
In order to translate his research to practice, Prof Nosaka has been involving in a community program named “Stay Sharp Program” since 2016. In the last three years, the 8-week program has been running 4 times a year. Each program has 20-30 participants, and consists of 1-hour exercise session, followed by morning tea, and 1-hour cognitive activity session. In the exercise session, eccentric exercises are mainly performed under the instructions of Prof Nosaka and other exercise instructors. In the last 3 years, the program had more than 300 participants. Because of the popularity of the program, the program will be extended by producing more “eccentric exercise” instructors. This will result in building capacity and momentum for “eccentric exercise” and health in the community. His goal is to make people healthier, fitter, and happier by "eccentric exercise."